Blindsided (14 page)

Chapter
Seventeen – What Happens In The Locker Room, Stays In The Locker Room

Jesse

“I’m so sorry, Jesse.”

When Isabelle cried in front of me, it broke my heart. When Geogria cried in front of me, it was almost as hard to take, except I didn’t feel the same tugging in my stomach that made me want to comfort her. Especially when she’d just confessed to having a part in me being drugged.

She told me everything. How Mischa had scored some Rohypnol from God knows where, and Georgia planned to slip it into Leon’s drink to ‘teach him a lesson.’ How she couldn’t go through with it, and how she’d lied to Izzy and made her promise not to tell.

I knew Georgia was sorry. It wasn’t just the tears. I’d hung out with her for the last few weeks, and I knew she wasn’t the kind of girl who took huge risks and broke the rules. Sure, she cheated on her boyfriend with a sleazeball, but aside from occasional poor judgement, she was basically decent.

Happy as I was that she told me the truth, the bottom line was, Mischa didn’t deserve to get away with what she’d done. If I let it slide for Georgia’s sake, how long before she tried it again? Maybe I was being too sensible, but the idea that someone else could get hurt – or worse – if I stayed quiet was one I couldn’t live with.

But it was hard to follow through with Georgia weeping in front of me.

It wasn’t my intention to make her sweat it out. I just needed some time to think before making any more decisions.

Also, my knee was in serious need of some ice.

It was a good thing the house was warm, because needing to put ice on an injury in England in December was torture. On crutches, I still couldn’t get the ice on my own, so I swung through to the living room where Hunter and McCoy were talking – predictably – about women.

“It’s just like being in the locker room,” I said as I entered.

The guys looked up at me, and McCoy said, “Hey, what happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room.”

It sounded like a joke, but it was a real rule. I never participated in the guy talk, but it was always entertaining to listen to. During my first season, I’d heard way more than I ever needed to know about the wives, girlfriends and conquests of my team mates. It was actually hard to look some of them in the eye.

“Everything okay with Georgia?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah. We’re good. I do need to talk to Izzy, though. And I need to ice my knee.”

Radleigh stood up. “You’re right, you need to rest. Do you need a hand with anything before I go?”

“I got it covered,” Hunter said. “You sure you don’t want to stay for dinner again?”

“Thanks but I plan to spend the evening talking to my woman on the phone.”

“I guess you want me to keep that quiet too?” I laughed.

“Yeah,” McCoy replied. “That and every uncool romantic thing I said about Leah this afternoon, too.”

“As much as I’d love to tell her you’re pining for her, I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Okay, I’ve had enough of you punk ass kids now. I’m going back to the hotel. Hunter, tell your girl I said goodbye.”

He winked, and Hunter said, “Sure. If I tell her that, she’ll be thinking about you for the rest of the day instead of me! Even
I
can’t compete with the great Radleigh McCoy!”

McCoy turned to me. “I like this guy. Can you bring him to L.A?”

“You like him because he’s a young version of you,” I pointed out.

“Can’t deny that.”

“I’ll be in L.A as soon as I can,” Hunter said, laughing. “When I graduate high school, I wanna go to UCLA.”

“I hope you get in, man.”

“Thanks.”

I started to make a move towards the door, but McCoy said, “Stop. Get some ice on that knee, I can see myself out.”

“Okay. Are you coming by tomorrow?”

McCoy nodded. “Yeah, but if everything’s good here, I’ll probably drive back home after.”

It took a lot of strength not to mock him about calling Leah’s place “home,” but I managed it.

Just.

After McCoy had gone, Hunter told me to go wait in my room while he got me some ice, and I agreed because I really needed to talk to Izzy.

I could hear her and Willow giggling as I reached her bedroom door, but I knocked anyway, knowing Hunter would want to spend some more time with Willow before everyone came home for dinner. Isabelle called for me to go in, but her eyes filled with uncertainty when she saw me.

“Hi,” she said. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just going to my room to rest my knee. When you’re done with your college work, could I talk to you?”

She nodded. “Of course. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

As I hobbled back to my room, I tried to work out exactly what I wanted to say to her. Maybe a simple apology for not understanding the choice she made was the right thing to do, but I didn’t feel like I owed her an apology. I was the one whose future was uncertain, and she’d had the information the police needed. Pushing aside the obvious fact that the information she had was wrong, she didn’t know that. And she’d decided not to report it.

I lowered myself carefully onto my bed, and used the extra pillows Janet gave me to prop my leg up. I should have thought about what I wanted to say to Isabelle before asking to speak to her, but the truth was, I’d missed her too much to have to avoid her any longer.

Hunter came back with my ice before Isabelle arrived, and I quickly explained to him that I was going to try and sort things out with her. He responded by giving me an encouraging fist bump, then left the room to find Willow.

A tense five minutes followed, until Isabelle finally walked into my room. She looked nervous as she sat on my bed, and that feeling of wishing I’d been better prepared hit me hard. I was pretty sure that just pulling her into my arms and kissing her wouldn’t be the best way to make up, but it seemed a whole hell of a lot easier than talking.

“Jesse, I’m really sorry,” Izzy said, taking me by surprise. I hadn’t expected her to be the first to speak. “When everything happened yesterday, I just … I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want Georgia to get into trouble, but I shouldn’t have been so quick to take her side.”

Her head was down, her hair hiding her face. Her voice was soft, quiet, and for the first time, I noticed the first real similarity between her and Georgia.

They both knew how to give an apology that was impossible not to accept.

“Isabelle, look at me.”

She raised her head, and I was struck by the sadness in her eyes. God, her eyes. They seemed so deep, so heavy with regret. 

“Izzy, Georgia told me everything. The real truth about what happened on Saturday night. I know it wasn’t her fault, but I still think I need to report it.”

Slowly, Isabelle nodded. “I know. And I know this is awful, but I’m glad she told you, and that you’re going to report it because now I don’t have to.” She swung her hair over her shoulder to reveal a glowing red mark on her neck. “Mischa did this to me on the way home from college.”

Heaving myself up straighter, I leaned over to examine the damage. Her neck hadn’t been cut, but it looked like a painful burn.

“How did she do that?” I asked.

“She nearly decapitated me by pulling on my bag while I was trying to get away from her.” She put her hand up to the mark, and said, “It stings. And then she attempted to punch me in the face, so … yeah. I’ve had enough of her today.”

She tried to smile, but it didn’t really work. Instead, tears filled her eyes.

“I’ll call the police in the morning,” I told her. “And maybe Georgia won’t get into too much trouble.”

“Maybe.”

I reached for her hand, and when her fingers closed around mine, I knew we’d be okay.

How could it be that simple? When I was with Taylor, I never knew what she was thinking. I couldn’t read her, and when we had a fight, I had to practically get down on my knees and beg her to forgive me. Maybe it was something to do with what McCoy had said about it just feeling right. Isabelle felt right to me the way Leah felt right to him.

“How’s your knee?” Isabelle asked. “Is it still painful?”

“Yeah, but it will be for a while. I won’t be able to stop worrying about it until the surgery’s over and I know whether I can play soccer again.”

Her fingers tightened around my hand, and I could sense another apology on her lips, but she didn’t need to apologise for my injury.

“Don’t,” I said.

Isabelle gave a half smile, then sighed deeply. “We were having such a brilliant time on Saturday. Winter Wonderland, ice skating, the first half of the party. How could everything have gone so wrong? And how could …?” she stopped, and sighed again.

“What?”

She looked up at me, straight into my eyes. “How could the one day we spent apart feel like forever?”

Her eyes still shone with tears, and I shifted myself up into a sitting position, then shuffled myself closer to her, the ice on my knee sliding off and hitting the bed.

“I felt awful,” she went on. “For letting you down, for siding with Georgia when you were right. The right thing to do
was
obvious. But I couldn’t stand the idea of Georgia losing everything. I know that you stand to lose so much more, but … she’s my sister. And I know she’s not a bad person. Stupid sometimes, but not bad.”

I needed to hold her. Not just her hand, but her body, right against me, to make up for the time we lost. I let go of her hand, shuffling back across the bed to make room for her. “Come here.”

Isabelle swung her legs around so she was sitting fully on the bed next to me, stopping to place my ice pack back on my knee before she nestled against me, my arm around her shoulders, her head resting against my chest.

Right away, everything started to feel right again, and some of my worry began to disappear.

“I really like Radleigh McCoy,” Isabelle said, completely blindsiding me. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a guy in the world who wouldn’t lose his shit when his girl mentions his friend while in the middle of making up.

“A guy can never hear that enough.”

Isabelle quickly raised her head, her hand covering her mouth for a second. “Oh my God. You said … you said your ex only went out with you to get closer to him. Jesse, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like I’ve got a thing for him, I just meant he seems nice.”

She looked so worried, it put me at ease, and I gently pulled her back in to me.

“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s just that most girls fall in love with him. I heard Willow scream when she saw him.”

Isabelle giggled. “Yeah, she was so embarrassed! But
I’m
not in love with him. And me mentioning him actually relates to the conversation we were having. While you were talking to Georgia, he said some things that … well, I already knew them, but … it was good to have some confirmation. If you hadn’t made the first move to talk to me tonight, I would have. He was right. You have enough to deal with, without the added pressure of keeping a secret that wasn’t even yours to keep.”

“He said that?”

“Yeah. I think he sees as you as a little brother or something.”

I always thought he saw me as a pain in the ass.

It was good to know that, for the first time in a year, I’d finally met a girl who wasn’t interested in him. As I pulled Isabelle close to me again, I knew that she was mine. No matter what happened, if we could get through this, we could get through anything.

Chapter
Eighteen – I Better Start Praying

Isabelle

I felt safe again after talking to Jesse. I’d never been particularly afraid of Mischa, but knowing what she was capable of, and her almost knocking my head off earlier that day, it was nice to feel protected. Logically, there wasn’t much Jesse could do to physically defend me against her, unless he managed to smack her with one of his crutches, but it was the feeling of security I needed. Just knowing he was there for me.

Jesse and I didn’t move from his bed for the whole evening. We put a movie on, and while we were watching, Mum brought us up some dinner. Being the thoughtful mother she is, she didn’t make us go downstairs to eat which I appreciated. I wanted Jesse to myself for a bit longer.

We weren’t disturbed until well after the movie ended, and the remains of our lasagne-overloaded plates had gone cold. We were sitting together in a peaceful silence, with Jesse stroking my hair, when Mum knocked on the door again.

This time, her face looked serious. Pale, even.

“Can you two come down to the kitchen, please,” she said. “We need to talk.”

I quickly swung my legs down to the floor. “What’s wrong?”

“The police are here. They need to talk to Jesse again, and I’d like to talk to you and Georgia.”

Behind me, I felt Jesse turn to face my mum too. “Why are the police here?” he asked.

It was past ten, and he obviously hadn’t gone to the police to report Mischa yet because he’d been with me.

“Just come downstairs, please.”

Mum turned away, and I swivelled my head around to look at Jesse.

“Do you think Georgia went to the police herself?” I asked.

He nodded. “It sure looks that way.”

Although my only crime was covering up the truth – which technically was bad enough – nerves grabbed hold of me. A terrible thought shot through my brain.
What if she lied again?
She couldn’t have, though. If she had, she would have told me first. But more than that, I knew she was done with Mischa. If she had spoken to the police, she went with the truth.

“I suppose we should go down,” I said.

It took us a while to get down to the kitchen, with me carrying our dinner dishes, and Jesse on his crutches, but when we got there, we were greeted by the sight of my family, plus two police officers sitting around the dining table. Mum and Dad looked serious, though Mum looked as though she’d had an awful shock, which in a way was true. It’s not every day you’re informed that your daughter tried to drug someone. Georgia’s face was tear-stained, and she was still crying. Instead of waiting for anyone to speak, I went to her and pulled her into a tight hug. I couldn’t stand seeing her cry that way.

“What’s going on?” I heard Jesse ask from across the room as Georgia sobbed into my shoulder.

“Georgia went to the police station earlier with some new information,” Dad said. “They need to speak to you and Hunter about what happened.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll go into the other room. The girls have things to talk about in here.”

Nobody spoke, but I heard chair scraping across the floor as Dad, Hunter and the police officers rose from their chairs. It wasn’t until their footsteps had faded that Mum said, “Isabelle, take a seat.”

Reluctantly, I let go of Georgia, but sat down beside her and took her hand. She gave me a small, but grateful smile.

“Isabelle, is there anything you want to tell me about what happened at that party?” Mum asked.

“Mum,” Georgia said, “I already told you, none of this has anything to do with Isabelle. I told you everything.”

“I know what you told me,” Mum said. “But I want to hear it from Isabelle.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked, weakly.

“I want to know if you knew what Georgia intended to do to Leon at Mischa’s party.”

I shook my head. “Of course not. Those pills would have been flushed down the toilet if I’d known about them.”

Mum raised a suspicious eyebrow, and I said, “Mum, really? Do you honestly think I would have let this happen?”

“I didn’t think Georgia was capable of even thinking of spiking someone’s drink this morning. So, the answer is, I don’t know, Isabelle. I don’t know.”

“I had no idea,” I told her, firmly.

“Why didn’t you come to me as soon as you knew the truth? And don’t you dare tell me that it’s because you didn’t want to get Georgia into trouble.”

“But that is the reason.”

Mum’s chair almost flew right out the back door as she quickly stood up, and snapped, “What is wrong with you? This isn’t just some stupid little schoolgirl error! Georgia had drugs in our house, and fully intended to use them to hurt someone!”

Georgia was past the point of consolation and unable to defend herself, so I stood up too.

“She didn’t intend to use them! Maybe she thought about it, and that is bad enough, but what matters is that she didn’t do it! She couldn’t do it!”

“Whether she intended to use them or not, once you knew what had happened, you should have come to us instead of hiding it!”

There wasn’t a single moment in my life that I could recall seeing my mum so angry. That was probably
why
she was so angry. Aside from the occasional detention at school, Georgia and I had never done anything that would cause this level of upset. Well, I hadn’t. Georgia might have done things that our parents simply hadn’t found out about, but mostly, we stuck to the few rules they had given us.

“I’m ashamed of both of you,” she said, her jaw clenched. “This is why you and Jesse weren’t talking, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Yes. I didn’t want to lie to Jesse, but-”

“You asked him to keep Georgia’s secret,” Mum finished. “I’m surprised he could forgive you. It is far more than you deserve.”

The guilt of asking him to cover for Georgia hadn’t left me, and I wasn’t sure it ever would. Did she seriously think I didn’t know how lucky I was? Did she have any idea how much it had hurt to turn my back on him? That was one part of the situation I’d never forgive myself for, but if Jesse was willing to give me another chance, shouldn’t my own mother have done the same?

“Stop it!” Georgia yelled. “Both of you, just stop! Mum, stop blaming Isabelle for what I did, it’s not her fault! She didn’t tell you because I begged her not to. I was scared, okay? I was scared of what would happen to me, and scared of Elliott finding out that I’d-”

She stopped abruptly. My eyes widened, and Georgia took a sharp intake of breath as she realised she’d almost blurted out her other, distinctly more disgusting secret. It was one thing confessing to carrying drugs, but admitting that she’d once had sex with the guy who’d been stalking her was perhaps a step more than she was prepared to take.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

“Of Elliott finding out you … what?” Mum asked, her voice dangerously low.

With a single shake of my head, I begged her to lie. More than enough had been revealed for one night, and I was genuinely starting to worry for my mum’s health if she got any more enraged. All Georgia had to do was say that she was afraid that Elliott would dump her if he found out about the drink spiking, but clearly, she was on a truth telling roll, and she managed to squeak out, “I slept with Leon.”

The screech that came out of Mum was loud enough to wake the entire street. Georgia put her head on the table, covering it with her hands,

“Isabelle, go to your room,” Mum said.

All three of us were shaking, but I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want Georgia to have to face Mum’s fury alone.

“Isabelle.”

“No, Mum, please just-”

“Now!” she barked, and I turned and ran from the kitchen and up to my room. I slammed the door, scrambled around in my bag for my iPod and jammed the headphones in my ears so I wouldn’t have to hear the yelling.

The beat of the dance track only served to make my head throb, but I couldn’t bear to hear any more arguing. Tears flowed freely down my face, and I shuffled back to the top of my bed, hugging my knees to my chest.

It should have been obvious that my parents would be upset with Georgia, but I didn’t know that my mum could ever have that amount of anger inside her. She was the most laid back mother I knew, always understanding about even the craziest issues. But this. Hearing the things Georgia had done had flipped some kind of switch in her head. She never yelled. Barely even raised her voice. There was no way to tell how long it would take her to calm down, but I was pretty sure that this was not going to be our best Christmas ever.

Somehow, even with the deafening sound of music blaring in my ears, I fell asleep, huddled at the top of my bed still fully clothed. A gentle hand on my arm startled me awake and I jumped up and pulled my headphones out. Jesse was standing in front of me, but I could barely focus on him because my head was still thumping and my eyes were all sticky from the tears I cried before drifting off.

“What time is it?” I asked, blinking a few times to clear my vision.

“It’s just after midnight,” Jesse said, setting his crutches to the side of him so he could sit down. He reached out his hand, but instead of taking it, I let my body fall sideways so my head rested in his lap.

“What happened?” I asked.

“The cops asked me some questions. Then they asked Hunter some questions. Then they asked us both again. I told them everything Georgia told me, and they said that they’ll be talking to Mischa first thing in the morning. They want to talk to you too, but when your dad came up to get you, you’d fallen asleep. He convinced them that you probably don’t have anything new to tell them, but they’ll be coming by in the morning to talk to you anyway.”

Definitely good judgement on my dad’s part. I could barely string a sentence together with my headache and my worry about Georgia.

Georgia!

“Jesse, what happened to Georgia? Is she in trouble with the police?”

“No. Looks like she’ll just get a warning. She wasn’t the one who spiked my drink. But … if Mischa tries to pin it on her, things might get more complicated.”

If I’d had the energy, I’d have leapt to my feet, ready to make absolutely sure that Georgia didn’t get any more trouble heaped on her, but I didn’t. All I wanted was to lie where I was, with Jesse gently running his fingers through my hair.

“What about my parents?” I asked. “My mum went mental at Georgia.”

“I heard.”

“I think everyone in Notting Hill heard. I’m surprised the police didn’t charge into the kitchen and arrest her for disturbing the peace.”

“She calmed down a little. Eventually. Georgia went to bed a while ago but she was still pretty upset. Your dad said I should check on you while he checks on her.”

I smiled with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, and his green eyes seemed to sparkle. I’d wanted to ask him if he really, truly forgave me, but with that look, he told me everything I needed to know.

Jesse slowly leaned forward, bending down further than should have been comfortable for him, and lightly kissed me. Before I had the chance to fully enjoy it, the sound of Jesse’s mobile ringing made him pull away.

“Who could be ringing you at this time?” I asked, begrudgingly moving away so he could reach for his phone. He looked at it and sighed.

“It’s my boss. I better get this.”

I leaned back against the wall again, and closed my eyes, trying hard not to listen to Jesse’s conversation. It was virtually impossible to do with him sitting close to me. My curiosity got the best of me when I heard him say, “I’ve got just over a week left … Yes … I’d really prefer not to … I understand, but I don’t think I’m ready yet … Sure … Sure, I’ll try. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

He hung up the phone with a sigh, and turned to look at me. “He wants me to go home. Immediately.”

I really thought the day couldn’t get any worse, but that bombshell really sealed it.

“But … you can’t. We only just-”

The words stuck in my throat, and I threw my head back, willing myself not to cry again. It was an impossible task with a headache that threatened to shatter my skull, and the prospect of losing Jesse much earlier than planned.

I hated Mischa. I hated her for throwing that party, and for drugging Jesse. I hated Leon for inadvertently being the catalyst for the chain of events, and most of all, I hated myself for going to Mischa’s when neither of us wanted to go.

“Izzy. It’ll be okay. I might not even be able to get a flight out of here any earlier than the one I have.”

That glimmer of hope was all I had, and I clung to it as I fixed my eyes on him.

“I suppose I better start praying.”